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''Alice in Wonderland'' is a 1951 American
animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwo ...
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...
comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...
produced by
Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...
and based on the ''
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
'' books by
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
. The thirteenth release of Disney's animated features, the film premiered in London on July 26, 1951, and in New York City on July 28, 1951. It features the voices of Kathryn Beaumont as
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
, Sterling Holloway as the
Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "C ...
,
Verna Felton Verna Arline Felton (July 20, 1890December 14, 1966) was an American actress, best known for providing many voices in numerous Disney animated films. She also provided the voice for Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople in Hanna-Bar ...
as the
Queen of Hearts The queen of hearts is a playing card in the standard 52-card deck. Queen of Hearts or The Queen of Hearts may refer to: Books * "The Queen of Hearts" (poem), anonymous nursery rhyme published 1782 * ''The Queen of Hearts'', an 1859 novel by ...
, and Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter.
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
first tried to adapt ''Alice'' into a feature-length animated film in the 1930s and revived the idea in the 1940s. The film was originally intended to be a live-action/animated film, but Disney decided it would be a fully animated film. ''Alice in Wonderland'' was considered a disappointment on its initial release, therefore was shown on television as one of the first episodes of ''
Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...
''. Its 1974 re-release in theaters proved to be much more successful, leading to subsequent re-releases, merchandising and home video releases. Although the film received generally negative critical reviews on its initial release, it has been more positively reviewed over the years. A CGI-animated reboot series, '' Alice's Wonderland Bakery'', premiered on February 9, 2022.


Plot

In a park in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, a young girl named
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
with her cat, Dinah, listens distractedly to her sister's history lesson, and begins daydreaming of a nonsensical world. She spots a passing White Rabbit in a waistcoat, who panics of being late. Alice follows him into a burrow and plummets down a deep rabbit hole. Upon landing in a place called
Wonderland Wonderland may refer to: Places Municipalities * Wonderland, California, a ghost town in Plumas County * Wonderland, Ohio, a ghost town in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. Roads, streets, and trails * Wonderland Avenue, a roadway in Laurel Canyon, Los A ...
, she finds herself facing a tiny door, whose handle advises drinking from a bottle on a nearby table. She shrinks to an appropriate height, but has forgotten the key on the table. She then eats a cookie that causes her to grow excessively. Exasperated by these changes of state, she begins to cry and floods the room with her tears. She takes another sip from the bottle to shrink again, and rides the empty bottle through the keyhole. As Alice continues to follow the Rabbit after encountering a "Caucus Race", she encounters numerous characters, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who recount the tale of " The Walrus and the Carpenter". Alice tracks the Rabbit to his house; he mistakes her for his housemaid, "Mary Ann", and sends her inside to retrieve his gloves. While searching for the gloves, Alice finds and eats another cookie and grows giant, getting stuck in the house. Thinking her a monster, the Rabbit asks the
Dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. ...
to help expel her. When the Dodo decides to burn the house down, Alice escapes by eating a carrot from the Rabbit's garden, which causes her to shrink to 3 inches tall. Continuing to follow the Rabbit, Alice meets a garden of talking flowers who initially welcome her with a song, but then banish her, believing that humans are a type of weed. Alice then encounters a
Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sy ...
smoking, who becomes enraged at Alice after she laments her small size (which is the same as the Caterpillar's), after which the Caterpillar turns into a butterfly and flies away. Before leaving, the Caterpillar advises Alice to eat a piece from different sides of a mushroom to alter her size. Following a period of trial and error, she returns to her original height and keeps the remaining pieces in her pocket. In the woods, Alice gets stuck between multiple paths and encounters the mischievous
Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "C ...
, who suggests questioning the Mad Hatter or the March Hare to learn the Rabbit's location, but is unhelpful in giving directions. Taking her own path, Alice encounters both, along with the Dormouse, in the midst of an "
unbirthday An unbirthday (originally written un-birthday) is an event celebrated on all days of the year which are not a person's birthday. It is a neologism which first appeared in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass.'' The concept gave ...
" tea party celebration. The Hatter and the Hare ask Alice to explain her predicament, to which Alice tries but becomes frustrated by their interruptions and absurd logic. As she prepares to leave, the Rabbit appears and the Hatter attempts to repair his
pocket watch A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwa ...
, which results in its destruction. Alice attempts to follow the Rabbit after he is ejected from the premises, but decides to go home instead. Unfortunately, her surroundings completely change, leaving her lost in the forest. The Cheshire Cat reappears to the despondent Alice and offers a path to the hot-headed
Queen of Hearts The queen of hearts is a playing card in the standard 52-card deck. Queen of Hearts or The Queen of Hearts may refer to: Books * "The Queen of Hearts" (poem), anonymous nursery rhyme published 1782 * ''The Queen of Hearts'', an 1859 novel by ...
, the only one in Wonderland who can take her home. In the Queen's labyrinthine garden, Alice witnesses the Queen – whom the Rabbit serves as a chamberlain – sentencing a trio of playing cards to decapitation for painting mistakenly-planted white rosebushes red. The Queen invites a reluctant Alice to play against her in a croquet match, in which live flamingos, card guards, and hedgehogs are used as equipment. The equipment rig the game in favor of the Queen. The Cat appears again and plays a trick on the Queen, setting up Alice to be framed. Before the Queen can sentence her to decapitation, the
King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
suggests a formal trial. At Alice's trial, the Cat invokes more chaos by having Alice point him out, causing one of the witnesses – the Dormouse – to panic. As the Queen sentences Alice to decapitation, Alice eats the mushroom pieces to grow large, momentarily intimidating the court. However, the mushroom's effect is short-lived, forcing Alice to flee through the deteriorating realm with a large crowd in pursuit. When Alice reaches the small door she encountered, she sees herself sleeping through the keyhole. Alice emerges from her dream, and she returns home for tea with her sister.


Voice cast

* Kathryn Beaumont as
Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...
* Ed Wynn as Mad Hatter * Jerry Colonna as March Hare * Richard Haydn as
Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sy ...
* Sterling Holloway as
Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "C ...
*
Verna Felton Verna Arline Felton (July 20, 1890December 14, 1966) was an American actress, best known for providing many voices in numerous Disney animated films. She also provided the voice for Fred Flintstone's mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople in Hanna-Bar ...
as
Queen of Hearts The queen of hearts is a playing card in the standard 52-card deck. Queen of Hearts or The Queen of Hearts may refer to: Books * "The Queen of Hearts" (poem), anonymous nursery rhyme published 1782 * ''The Queen of Hearts'', an 1859 novel by ...
* Pat O'Malley as Tweedledum and Tweedledee/ Walrus and Carpenter/ Mother Oyster * Bill Thompson as White Rabbit/
Dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. ...
/ Pat * Heather Angel as Alice's sister * Joseph Kearns as Doorknob * Larry Grey as
Bill the Lizard Bill the Lizard is a fictional character appearing in Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. Fictional character biography Introduced in "Chapter Four – The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill", Bill the Lizard is perceived b ...
/ Card Painter * Queenie Leonard as Bird in the Tree/ Snooty Iris * Dink Trout as King of Hearts * Doris Lloyd as Red Rose * Jimmy MacDonald as Dormouse/Flamingo * The Mellomen (
Thurl Ravenscroft Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (; February 6, 1914May 22, 2005) was an American actor and bass singer. He was known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also ...
, Bill Lee, Max Smith and Bob Hamlin) as The Card Painters * Don Barclay as The Card Soldiers * Lucille Bliss as The Lazy Daisies/The Tulips * Pinto Colvig as The Flamingos * Tommy Luske as The Young Pansies * Marni Nixon as The Singing Flowers * Norma Zimmer as
White Rose The White Rose (german: Weiße Rose, ) was a Nonviolence, non-violent, intellectual German resistance to Nazism, resistance group in Nazi Germany which was led by five students (and one professor) at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, ...


Directing animators

Directing animators are: * Marc Davis (Alice and the eyeglasses creature) * Milt Kahl (The Dodo, Alice, Flamingo, Hedgehog, White Rabbit) * Eric Larson (Alice, Dinah, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts, Flamingo) * Frank Thomas (Doorknob, Queen of Hearts, Wonderland Creatures) * Ollie Johnston (Alice, King of Hearts) *
Ward Kimball Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honore ...
(Tweedledee and Tweedledum, The Walrus and The Carpenter, Oysters, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Dormouse) * John Lounsbery (Flowers, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Wonderland creatures) * Wolfgang Reitherman (White Rabbit, The Carpenter, The Dodo, Mad Hatter, March Hare) * Les Clark (Alice, Wonderland creatures) * Norm Ferguson (The Walrus and The Carpenter)


Production


Development

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
was familiar with
Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
's ''Alice'' books, '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and ''
Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...
'' (1871), and had read them as a schoolboy. In 1923, he was a 21-year-old aspiring filmmaker working at the
Laugh-O-Gram Studio The Laugh-O-Gram Studio (also called Laugh-O-Gram Studios) was a short-lived film studio located on the second floor of the McConahay Building at 1127 East 31st in Kansas City, Missouri that operated from June 28, 1921 to November 20, 1923. ...
in Kansas City, making the unsuccessful short cartoon series by the name of ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams.'' The last of ''Newman Laugh-O-Grams'' was called '' Alice's Wonderland,'' which was loosely inspired by the ''Alice'' books. The short featured a live-action girl (
Virginia Davis Virginia Davis (December 31, 1918 – August 15, 2009) was an American child actress in films. She is best known for working with Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks on the animated short series Alice Comedies, in which she portrayed the protagonist Alic ...
) interacting with an animated world. Faced with business problems, however, the Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt in July 1923, and the film was never released to the general public. However, Disney left for Hollywood and used the film to show to potential distributors. Margaret J. Winkler of Winkler Pictures agreed to distribute the ''Alice Comedies,'' and Disney partnered with his older brother Roy O. Disney and re-hired Kansas City co-workers including Ub Iwerks, Rudolph Ising,
Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ...
,
Carman Maxwell Carman Griffin Maxwell (December 27, 1902 – September 22, 1987) was an American animator and voice actor. Maxwell was born in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, and later moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He began his career at Walt Disney, where Maxwe ...
and
Hugh Harman Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) was an American animator. He was known for creating the Warner Bros. Cartoons and MGM Cartoons and his collaboration with Rudolf Ising during the golden age of American animation. Career He b ...
to form the Disney Brothers Studios, which was later re-branded Walt Disney Productions. The series began in 1924 before being retired in 1927. In 1933, Disney considered making a feature-length animated-and-live-action version of ''Alice'' starring
Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...
. However, these plans were eventually scrapped in favor of ''
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection '' Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as ...
'', mainly because Disney was put off by Paramount's 1933 live-action adaptation ''
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
''. However, Disney did not completely abandon the idea of adapting ''Alice'', and in 1936 he made the ''
Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...
'' cartoon '' Thru the Mirror''. In 1938, after the enormous success of ''Snow White'', Disney bought the film rights of ''Alice in Wonderland'' with Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, and officially registered the title with the
Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...
. He then hired storyboard artist Al Perkins and art director David S. Hall to develop the story and concept art for the film. A story reel was completed in 1939, but Disney was not pleased; he felt that Hall's drawings resembled Tenniel's drawings too closely, making them too difficult to animate, and that the overall tone of Perkins' script was too grotesque and dark. Realizing the amount of work needed for ''Alice in Wonderland'', and with the economic devastation of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and the production demands of ''
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
'', ''
Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcor ...
'', and '' Bambi'', Disney shelved production on ''Alice in Wonderland'' shortly after the screening. In fall 1945, shortly after the war ended, Disney revived ''Alice in Wonderland'' and hired British author Aldous Huxley to re-write the script. Huxley devised a story in which Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell (the inspiration for Alice) were misunderstood and persecuted following the book's publication. In Huxley's story, stage actress
Ellen Terry Dame Alice Ellen Terry, (27 February 184721 July 1928), was a leading English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a family of actors, Terry began performing as a child, acting in Shakespeare plays in London, and tour ...
was sympathetic to both Carroll and Liddell, and
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
served as the deus ex machina, validating Carroll due to her appreciation for the book. Disney considered child actress Margaret O'Brien for the title role. However, he felt that Huxley's version was too literal an adaptation of Carroll's book.
Background artist A background artist or sometimes called a background stylist or background painter is one who is involved in the process of animation who establishes the color, style, and mood of a scene drawn by an animation layout artist. The methods used can e ...
Mary Blair Mary Blair (born Mary Browne Robinson; October 21, 1911 – July 26, 1978) was an American artist, animator, and designer. She was prominent in producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, drawing concept art for such films as ''A ...
submitted some concept drawings for ''Alice in Wonderland''. Blair's paintings moved away from Tenniel's detailed illustrations by taking a
modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
stance, using bold and unreal colors. Walt liked Blair's designs, and the script was re-written to focus on comedy, music, and the whimsical side of Carroll's books. Around this time, Disney considered making a live-action-and-animated version of ''Alice in Wonderland'' (similar to his short ''Alice Comedies'') that would star Ginger Rogers and would utilize the recently developed
sodium vapor process The sodium vapor process (occasionally referred to as yellowscreen) is a photochemical film technique for combining actors and background footage. It originated in the British film industry in the late 1950s and was used extensively by Walt Disne ...
. Lisa Davis (who later voiced Anita Radcliffe in '' One Hundred and One Dalmatians'') and Luana Patten were also considered for the role of Alice. However, Disney soon realized that he could only do justice to the book by making an all-animated feature and, in 1946, work began on ''Alice in Wonderland''. With the film tentatively scheduled for release in 1950, animation crews on ''Alice in Wonderland'' and '' Cinderella'' effectively competed against each other to see which film would finish first. By early 1948, ''Cinderella'' had progressed further than ''Alice in Wonderland''. A legal dispute with Dallas Bower's 1949 film version was also under way. Disney sued to prevent release of the British version in the U.S., and the case was extensively covered in ''Time'' magazine. The company that released the British version accused Disney of trying to exploit their film by releasing its version at virtually the same time.


Writing

Through various drafts of the script, many sequences that were present in Carroll's book drifted in and out of the story. However, Disney insisted that the scenes themselves keep close to those in the novel since most of its humor is in the writing. One omitted scene from the 1939 treatment of the film occurred outside the Duchess' manor, where the Fish Footman is giving a message to the Frog Footman to take to the Duchess, saying that she is invited to play croquet with the Queen of Hearts. Alice overhears this and sneaks into the kitchen of the manor, where she finds the Duchess' Cook maniacally cooking and the Duchess nursing her baby. The cook is spraying pepper all over the room, causing the Duchess and Alice to sneeze and the baby to cry. After a quick conversation between Alice and the Duchess, the hot-tempered Cook starts throwing pots and pans at the noisy baby. Alice rescues the baby, but as she leaves the house the baby turns into a pig and runs away. The scene was scrapped for pacing reasons. Another scene that was deleted from a later draft occurred in Tulgey Wood, where Alice encountered what appeared to be a sinister-looking Jabberwocky hiding in the dark, before revealing himself as a comical-looking dragon-like beast with bells and factory whistles on his head. A song, "Beware the Jabberwock", was also written. However, the scene was scrapped in favor of ''The Walrus and the Carpenter'' poem. Out of a desire to keep the Jabberwocky poem in the film, it was made to replace an original song for the Cheshire Cat, "I'm Odd". Another deleted scene in Tulgey Wood shows Alice consulting with The White Knight, who was meant to be somewhat a caricature of Walt Disney. Although Disney liked the scene, he felt it was better if Alice learned her lesson by herself, hence the song "Very Good Advice". Other characters, such as Mock Turtle and the Gryphon were discarded for pacing reasons, though they would later appear alongside Alice in some commercials.


Music

In an effort to retain some of Carroll's imaginative poems, Disney commissioned top songwriters to compose songs built around them for use in the film. Over 30 potential songs were written, and many of them were included in the film—some for only a few seconds—the greatest number of songs of any Disney film. In 1939,
Frank Churchill Frank Edwin Churchill (October 20, 1901 – May 14, 1942) was an American film composer and songwriter. He wrote most of the music for films directed by Walt Disney, such as ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', ''Dumbo'', ''Bambi'', '' The Adve ...
was assigned to compose songs, and they were accompanied by a story reel featuring artwork from David S. Hall. Although none of his songs were used in the finished film, the melody for "Lobster Quadrille" was used for the song "
Never Smile at a Crocodile "Never Smile at a Crocodile" is a comic song with music by Frank Churchill and lyrics by Jack Lawrence. The music, without the lyrics, was first heard in the Walt Disney Animation Studios film ''Peter Pan''. History Churchill, who had composed mos ...
" in ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
''. When work on ''Alice'' resumed in 1946,
Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of History of music publishing, music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the American popular music, popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It origin ...
songwriters Mack David,
Al Hoffman Al Hoffman (September 25, 1902 – July 21, 1960) was an American song composer. He was a hit songwriter active in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, usually co-writing with others and responsible for number-one hits through each decade, many of wh ...
and Jerry Livingston began composing songs for it after working on '' Cinderella''. However, the only song by the trio that made it into the film was "The Unbirthday Song". While he was composing songs in New York,
Sammy Fain Sammy Fain (born Samuel E. Feinberg; June 17, 1902 – December 6, 1989) was an American composer of popular music. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he contributed numerous songs that form part of The Great American Songbook, and to Broadway theatre ...
had heard that the Disney studios wanted him to compose songs for ''Alice in Wonderland''. He also suggested lyricist Bob Hilliard as his collaborator. The two wrote two unused songs for the film, "Beyond the Laughing Sky" and "I'm Odd". The music for the former song was kept but the lyrics were changed, and it later became the title song for ''Peter Pan'', "The Second Star to the Right". By April 1950, Fain and Hilliard had finished composing songs for the film. The title song, composed by Sammy Fain, has become a jazz standard, adapted by
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
pianist
Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...
in 1952 and included on his 1957 Columbia album '' Dave Digs Disney''. The song, "In a World of My Own," is included on the orange disc of '' Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic''.


Soundtrack and Camarata version

There was no soundtrack album available when the film was released in 1951. RCA Victor released a story album and single records with Kathryn Beaumont and several cast members that re-created the story, but it was not the soundtrack. in 1944,
Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. ...
had released a Ginger Rogers dramatization of Lewis Carroll's book with Disney cover art (perhaps tying in with earlier discussions of her being cast as a live-action Disney "Alice"), Decca did indeed license the rights to release the 1951 Alice soundtrack from Disney, but later decided against it and never produced one. When Disney started its own record company, Disneyland Records, in Spring 1956, it was found to be economically unfeasible at the time to take on the fees and other costs to produce a soundtrack album. In 1957, Tutti Camarata arranged and conducted an elaborate original production of the Alice score with Darlene Gillespie, who had shown great promise among the '' Mickey Mouse Club'' cast as a singer. Camarata assembled a new orchestra and chorus (possibly with the cooperation of Norman Luboff, as
Betty Mulliner Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beatr ...
(Luboff) and choir member
Thurl Ravenscroft Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (; February 6, 1914May 22, 2005) was an American actor and bass singer. He was known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also ...
can be heard) in the
Capitol studios Capitol Studios are recording studios located at the landmark Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, California. The studios, which opened in 1956, were initially the primary recording studios for the American record label Capitol Records. While ...
in Hollywood. The resulting album became one of the most influential and acclaimed studio versions of a score, garnering praise from within the industry as well as the public. The original issue (WDL-4025) depicting Alice seated in a tree with characters beneath her is highly collectible but the album was so popular it was reissued in 1959, 1963 and 1968 with different covers, as well as story albums with books and single records, all featuring music from this album, as well in translated versions of the Camarata ''Alice'' music for international recordings. To date, the only soundtrack material ever made available on vinyl records was released outside the United States. In the late nineties, over 45 years after the film's original release, a soundtrack album of ''Alice in Wonderland'' was finally released in the U.S. on Audio CD by Walt Disney Records.


Songs

Original songs performed in the film include: Songs written for the film but deleted during production include: * "Beyond the Laughing Sky" – Alice (replaced by "In a World of My Own"; this melody was later used for "The Second Star to the Right" in ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
'') * "Dream Caravan" – Caterpillar (replaced by "A-E-I-O-U") * "Everything Has a Useness" – Caterpillar * "I'm Odd" – Cheshire Cat (replaced by "'Twas Brillig") * "So They Say" – Alice * "When the Wind is in the East" - Mad Hatter * "Gavotte of the Cards" - Alice * "Entrance of the Executioner" - King of Hearts and Queen of Hearts * " Beware the Jabberwock" –
Stan Freberg Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director. His best-known works include "St. George and the Dragonet" ...
, Daws Butler and the Rhythmaires (referring to the deleted character) * "If You'll Believe in Me" – The Lion and The Unicorn (deleted characters) * "Beautiful Soup" – The Mock Turtle and The Gryphon (deleted characters) set to the tune of The Blue Danube * "The Lobster Quadrille (Will You Join the Dance?)" - The Mock Turtle (deleted character) * "Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy" – The Duchess (deleted character) * " Humpty Dumpty" – Humpty Dumpty (deleted character)


Release

''Alice in Wonderland'' premiered at the Leicester Square Theatre in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
on July 26, 1951. During the film's initial theatrical run, the film was released as a
double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera h ...
with the '' True-Life Adventures'' documentary short, '' Nature's Half Acre''. Following the film's initial lukewarm reception, it was never re-released theatrically in Disney's lifetime, instead being shown occasionally on television. ''Alice in Wonderland'' aired as the second episode of the '' Walt Disney's Disneyland'' television series on ABC on November 3, 1954, in a severely edited version cut down to less than an hour. Beginning in 1971, the film was screened in several sold-out venues at college campuses, becoming the most rented film in some cities. Then, in 1974, Disney gave ''Alice in Wonderland'' its first theatrical re-release. The company even promoted it as a film in tune with the " psychedelic times", using radio commercials featuring the song " White Rabbit" performed by
Jefferson Airplane Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to ach ...
. This release was so successful that it warranted a subsequent re-release in 1981. Its first UK re-release was on July 26, 1979.


Marketing

Disney sought to use the new medium of
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
to help advertise ''Alice in Wonderland''. In March 1950, he spoke to his brother Roy about launching a television program featuring the studio's animated shorts. Roy agreed, and later that summer they spoke to the Coca-Cola Company about sponsoring an hour-long Christmas broadcast featuring Disney hosting several cartoons and a scene from the upcoming film. The program became '' One Hour in Wonderland'', which was aired on NBC on Christmas Day 1950. At the same time, a ten-minute featurette about the making of the film, ''Operation: Wonderland'', was produced and screened in theaters and on television stations. Additionally, Disney, Kathryn Beaumont, and Sterling Holloway appeared on '' The Fred Waring Show'' on March 18, 1951, to promote the film.


Home media

''Alice in Wonderland'' was one of the first titles available for the rental market on VHS and
Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
and for retail sale on RCA's short-lived CED Videodisc format. The film was released on October 15, 1981, on VHS, CED Videodisc, and
Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...
for its 30th anniversary. Five years later, it was re-issued in the "Wonderland Sale" promotion on May 28, 1986 on VHS, Betamax, and LaserDisc for its 35th anniversary, and then it was re-promoted on July 12, 1991 for its 40th anniversary, surrounding the video re-issue of Robin Hood. In January 2000, Walt Disney Home Video launched the Gold Classic Collection, and then ''Alice in Wonderland'' was re-issued on VHS and DVD in the line on July 4, 2000. The DVD contained the ''Operation: Wonderland'' featurette, several sing-a-long videos, a storybook, a trivia game, and its theatrical trailer. A fully restored two-disc "Masterpiece Edition" was released on January 27, 2004, including the full hour-long episode of the Disney television show with Kathryn Beaumont,
Edgar Bergen Edgar John Bergen (born Edgar John Berggren; February 16, 1903 – September 30, 1978) was an American ventriloquist, actor, comedian, vaudevillian and radio performer, best known for his proficiency in ventriloquism and his characters ...
, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, Bobby Driscoll and others that promoted the film, computer games, deleted scenes, songs and related materials, and went into moratorium in January 2009. A year and two months later, Disney released a 2-disc special "Un-Anniversary" edition DVD on March 30, 2010 to promote the recent Tim Burton version. The film was released in a Blu-ray and DVD set on February 1, 2011, to celebrate its 60th anniversary, featuring a new HD restoration of the movie and many bonus features. Disney re-released the film on Blu-ray and DVD on April 26, 2016, to celebrate the film's 65th anniversary. The film was released on
Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
on November 12, 2019.


Reception


Box office

During its initial theatrical run, the film grossed $2.4 million in domestic rentals. Because of the film's production budget of $3 million, the studio wrote off a million-dollar loss. During its theatrical re-release in 1974, the film grossed $3.5 million in domestic rentals.


Critical reaction

Despite being regarded as one of Disney's best animated films today, and gaining a large following, the initial reviews for ''Alice in Wonderland'' were negative. Bosley Crowther, reviewing for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', complimented that "...if you are not too particular about the images of Carroll and Tenniel, if you are high on Disney whimsey and if you'll take a somewhat slow, uneven pace, you should find this picture entertaining. Especially should it be for the kids, who are not so demanding of fidelity as are their moms and dads. A few of the episodes are dandy, such as the mad tea party and the caucus race; the music is tuneful and sugary and the color is excellent." '' Variety'' wrote that the film "has an earnest charm and a chimerical beauty that best shows off the Carroll fantasy. However, it has not been able to add any real heart or warmth, ingredients missing from the two tomes and which have always been an integral part of the previous Disney feature cartoons." Mae Tinee of the ''
Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' wrote that "While the Disney figures do resemble John Tenniel's famous sketches, they abound in energy but are utterly lacking in enchantment, and seem more closely related to
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
, the clumsy pup, than the products of Carroll's imagination. Youngsters probably will find it a likable cartoon, full of lively characters, with Alice's dream bedecked with just a touch of nightmare—those who cherish the old story as I have probably will be distinctly disappointed." ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' stated that "Judged simply as the latest in the long, popular line of Disney cartoons, ''Alice'' lacks a developed story line, which the studio's continuity experts, for all their freedom with scissors and paste, have been unable to put together out of the episodic books. Much of it is familiar stuff; Carroll's garden of live flowers prompts Disney to revive the style of his '' Silly Symphonies''. Yet there is plenty to delight youngsters, and there are flashes of cartooning ingenuity that should appeal to grownups." ''Alice in Wonderland'' was met with great criticism from Carroll fans, as well as from British film and literary critics, who accused Disney of " Americanizing" a great work of
English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
. Walt Disney was not surprised by the critical reception to ''Alice in Wonderland'' as his version of ''Alice'' was intended for large family audiences, not literary critics. Additionally, the film was met with a lukewarm response at the box office. Additionally, he remarked that the film failed because it lacked heart. In ''The Disney Films'', Leonard Maltin says that animator
Ward Kimball Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honore ...
felt the film failed because "it suffered from too many cooks—directors. Here was a case of five directors each trying to top the other guy and make his sequence the biggest and craziest in the show. This had a self-canceling effect on the final product." On the film aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, ''Alice in Wonderland'' received an approval rating of 84% from 31 critical reviews with an average rating of 6.80/10. The consensus states, "A good introduction to Lewis Carroll's classic, ''Alice in Wonderland'' boasts some of the Disney canon's most surreal and twisted images."


Accolades


Legacy


Stage version

''Alice in Wonderland'' has been condensed into a one-act stage version entitled, ''Alice in Wonderland, Jr''. The stage version is solely meant for middle and high school productions and includes the majority of the film's songs and others including ''
Song of the South ''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American live-action/animated musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on the Uncle Remus stories as adapted b ...
''s " Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", two new reprises of "I'm Late!", and three new numbers entitled "Ocean of Tears", "Simon Says", and "Who Are You?" respectively. This 60–80 minute version is licensed by
Music Theatre International Music Theatre International (MTI) is a theatrical licensing agency based in New York City. Description MTI was founded in 1952 by American composer and lyricist Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker. Along with the licensing rights to L ...
in the Broadway, Jr. Collection along with other Disney Theatrical shows such as '' Disney's Aladdin, Jr.'', '' Disney's Mulan, Jr.'', '' Beauty and the Beast'', Disney's ''
High School Musical ''High School Musical'' is a 2006 American musical television film directed by Kenny Ortega and written by Peter Barsocchini. The 63rd Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM) and first installment of the ''High School Musical'' film series, ...
: On Stage!'',
Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
and
Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ...
's '' Aida'', and many more.


References in other Disney films

* In '' Donald in Mathmagic Land'',
Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...
wears Alice's dress and has her hairstyle, except it’s brown and not blond. A larger pencil bird is in the film as well. * Bill the Lizard appears as one of Professor Ratigan's henchmen in ''
The Great Mouse Detective ''The Great Mouse Detective'' (also known as ''The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective'' for its 1992 theatrical re-release and ''Basil the Great Mouse Detective'' in some countries) is a 1986 American animated mystery adventure film produc ...
''. * Alice and several other characters from the film were featured as guests in '' House of Mouse'', and the Queen of Hearts was one of the villains featured in '' Mickey's House of Villains''. The Mad Hatter was also featured in '' Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse''. * The Mad Hatter and the March Hare were also featured in several episodes of '' Bonkers''. * Bill the Lizard, Tweedledum, Cheshire Cat and the doorknob also appear in the 1988
Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
film ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated comedy film, comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall (filmmaker), Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely ad ...
''. * In the opening of ''
Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...
'', the peddler tries to sell a hookah much like the one the Caterpillar used. * In ''
Aladdin and the King of Thieves ''Aladdin and the King of Thieves'' is a 1996 American direct-to-video animated musical fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation. It is the second sequel to the 1992 film '' Aladdin'', and serves as the final chapter an ...
'', the Genie turns into the White Rabbit. * Weebo shows clips of the film on her screen in '' Flubber''. * An episode of ''
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ''Mickey Mouse Clubhouse'' is an American interactive computer-animated children's television series which aired from May 5, 2006, to November 6, 2016 on the Disney Channel. Produced by Disney Television Animation, it is the first computer-a ...
'', entitled "Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland", is based on the film. * During the song " When You Wish Upon a Star" in Disney's ''
Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
'', the ''Alice in Wonderland'' book can be seen on the bookshelf where Jiminy Cricket is singing from. This reference can be considered indirect as the film was released 11 years prior to ''Alice in Wonderland''. * Alice and Cheshire Cat made cameo appearances in episodes of '' The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse''.


Spin-off

On October 25, 2019, an undetermined animated project focused on the
Cheshire Cat The Cheshire Cat ( or ) is a fictional cat popularised by Lewis Carroll in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and known for its distinctive mischievous grin. While now most often used in ''Alice''-related contexts, the association of a "C ...
is being developed for Disney's subscription video on-demand streaming service,
Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...
. In 2022, a CGI-animated TV series called '' Alice's Wonderland Bakery'' was released on
Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven ...
. The series centers on Alice, the great-granddaughter of the original heroine.


Theme parks

Costumed versions of Alice, The Mad Hatter, The White Rabbit, The Queen of Hearts, Tweedledum, and Tweedledee make regular appearances at the Disney theme parks and resorts, and other characters from the film (including the Walrus and the March Hare) have featured in the theme parks, although quite rarely. Disneyland features a ride-through visit to Wonderland on board a Caterpillar-shaped ride vehicle; this adventure is unique to Disneyland and has not been reproduced at Disney's other parks. More famously, all five Disneyland-style theme parks feature Mad Tea Party, a teacups ride based on Disney's adaptation of ''Alice in Wonderland''. ''Alice in Wonderland'' is also frequently featured in many parades and shows in the Disney Theme Parks, including The Main Street Electrical Parade, SpectroMagic, ''
Fantasmic! ''Fantasmic!'' is a nighttime show at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The show formerly operated at Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, searc ...
'', Dreamlights, The Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party and
Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams Walt Disney's Parade of Dreams premiered on May 5, 2005 as part of the Happiest Homecoming on Earth, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in California. Conceived by VP Parades and Spectaculars, Steve Davison, the parade celebrates the ...
.
Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...
contains a dark ride based on the film in addition to the teacups, and Disneyland Paris also contains a hedge maze called
Alice's Curious Labyrinth Alice's Curious Labyrinth is a hedge maze attraction at the Disneyland Park within Disneyland Paris. It opened in 1992 with the Park, and belongs to the British part of Fantasyland. A similar maze attraction, based on both the 1951 and 2010 Dis ...
, which takes its inspiration from the film. The now-defunct
Mickey Mouse Revue The Mickey Mouse Revue was an indoor audio-animatronic stage show in the Fantasyland areas of the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland theme parks. It was one of the three original opening day attractions in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland in 1971 ...
, shown at
Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...
and later at
Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to ...
, contained characters and scenes from the film.


Video games

In ''
Disney's Villains' Revenge ''Disney's Villains' Revenge'' is a video game developed and published by Disney Interactive for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh in 1999. The gameplay is an interactive "point-and-click" method in various forms, featuring the player helping Jiminy ...
'', the Queen of Hearts is one of the villains who tries to turn the ending to her story to where she finally cuts off Alice's head. '' Mickey Mousecapade'' features various characters from the film. The Japanese version, in fact, is based very heavily on the film, with almost every reference in the game coming from the film. A video game version of the film was released on
Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...
by
Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing card ...
on October 4, 2000, in North America. The ''
Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square ...
'' video game series includes Wonderland as a playable world in the titles ''
Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (originally by Square). It is a collaboration between Square Enix and The Walt Disney Company and is under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square ...
'', ''
Chain of Memories is an Action role-playing game, action role-playing video game co-developed by Square Enix and Jupiter (company), Jupiter, and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios, Disney Interactive in 2004 for the Game Bo ...
'', '' 358/2 Days'', '' Coded'', and '' Kingdom Hearts χ''. In the games, Alice is one of seven "Princesses of Heart", a group of maidens who are a major part of the plot in the series. Other characters from the film that appear in the games include the Queen of Hearts and the Card Soldiers (also
enemies Enemies or foes are a group that is seen as forcefully adverse or threatening. Enemies may also refer to: Literature * ''Enemies'' (play), a 1906 play by Maxim Gorky * '' Enemies, A Love Story'', a 1966 novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer * '' Enem ...
in the games), Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit, Doorknob, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and the Caterpillar (this last in the non-official ''Kingdom Hearts V Cast'' game only). In '' Toy Story 3: The Video Game'', the Mad Hatter's hat is one of the hats you can have the townsfolk wear. In '' Kinect Disneyland Adventures'', Alice, Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, and the Queen of Hearts make appearances. In ''
Disney Infinity ''Disney Infinity'' is an action-adventure sandbox toys-to-life video game series developed by Avalanche Software. The setting of the series is a giant customizable universe of imagination, known as the Toy Box, populated with toy versions o ...
'', there are Power Discs based on ''Alice in Wonderland''. Several characters of the movie make appearances throughout the Epic Mickey-games. For example, the cards are seen throughout Mickeyjunk Mountain in the original '' Epic Mickey'', Alice appears as a statue carrying a projector screen in ''
Epic Mickey 2 ''Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two'' is a 2012 platform video game developed by Junction Point Studios and published by Disney Interactive Studios, and is the sequel to ''Epic Mickey''. The game was first released on the PlayStation 3, Wii, Wii ...
'' and Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the Cheshire Cat appear as unlockable characters in '' Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion''. Alice, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, Queen of Hearts and Caterpillar appear as playable characters in '' Disney Magic Kingdoms'', along with some attractions based on locations of the film or real attractions from Disney Parks, as content to unlock for a limited time.


Cover versions

The theme song of the same name has since become a
jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive li ...
by the likes of
Roberta Gambarini Roberta Gambarini is a jazz singer from Italy. Early life Gambarini was born in Turin, Italy, where she attended jazz concerts, clubs, and festivals with her parents. Her father played the saxophone, and she grew up hearing jazz in the house, an ...
,
Bill Evans William John Evans (August 16, 1929 – September 15, 1980) was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block ch ...
and
Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...
.Disney Jazz, Vol.1: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat, AllMusic
/ref>


See also

* ''
Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...
'' (2010), a live-action film adaptation of Carroll's works and a re-imagining of the story directed by
Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...
. A sequel to the film, '' Alice Through the Looking Glass'', directed by
James Bobin James Bobin is a British filmmaker. He worked as a director and writer on ''Da Ali G Show'' and helped create the characters of Ali G, Borat, and Brüno. With Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, he co-created '' Flight of the Conchords''. He di ...
, was released in 2016.


References


Bibliography

* * *


External links

* * * * * *
''Alice in Wonderland''
on Lux Radio Theater: December 24, 1951 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alice In Wonderland (1951 Film) 1951 animated films 1951 films 1950s American animated films 1950s musical fantasy films 1950s fantasy adventure films 1950s English-language films American children's animated adventure films American children's animated fantasy films American children's animated musical films American coming-of-age films American musical fantasy films Animated coming-of-age films Animated films based on Alice in Wonderland 1950s children's fantasy films Alice in Wonderland (franchise) American fantasy adventure films Films about children Films about royalty Films adapted into television shows Films based on Alice in Wonderland Films based on multiple works of a series Films directed by Clyde Geronimi Films directed by Hamilton Luske Films directed by Wilfred Jackson Films produced by Walt Disney Films set in the Victorian era Films set in the 1860s Animated films set in England Films set in castles Films scored by Oliver Wallace Psychedelia Rotoscoped films Films about size change Walt Disney Animation Studios films Walt Disney Pictures films 1950s children's films Films with screenplays by Winston Hibler